Jasta85 wrote:honestly, I felt it should have ended after Aizen was beaten. The whole fullbring arch felt pointless, the whole concept of fullbring and all its supporting characters were introduced and then promptly defeated all in one arch. the only thing that had changed at the end of it was the ichigo got his powers back (which could have easily been fixed by just not having him lose them after the aizen fight).

It made sense for him to lose his powers. He was as powerful as he could be at that time, having joined the human / shinigami / Hollow parts of himself, and the only way for him to keep moving and growing was to step back down again. It might not have been necessary to strip him of all his spiritual power, but it's more dramatically satisfying this way. And his powers would have come back anyway, as Isshin's did..

what I meant is that aside from him regaining his powers, there was pretty much no other consequences or changes after the fullbring arc. The new characters, the fullbring power itself are all introduced in that arc and then they all just vanish at the end of the arc. Which is why to me it felt like a filler because that's what a filler arc basically does, fill up time while having no direct effects on the main story (aside from ichigo getting his powers back).

It just felt disappointing , especially after the aizen fight, where the powers being thrown around are practically at dbz levels. and the fact that the anime stopped right after that arc (even though another arc in the manga had already started) seems to show i'm not the only one who felt things had gone downhill. In the past they would have just thrown in some more filler eps but in this case they actually ended the series.

anyway, while that may have turned me off, the Yamamoto fight is definitely bringing back the awesome.

Melanchthon wrote:I've been peeking in on the manga based on Tito's new attitude to character endangerment and I'm interested in what Yamamoto is pulling out of his hat at the moment, but as far as I'm concerned Bleach ended at the end of Volume 48.

Yamamoto pulled out the "I win" bankai. I hit you...with any attack...you insta die. you hit me, and you either lose your weapon or you insta die. Ultimate troll bankai, but so awesome at the same time.

The manga is still far from over. At this point I just want to see the bankai's of the captain's and lieutenants (mainly Yachiru and Kyoraku) who have not shown theirs (or in zaraki's case I just want to see him fricken release his sword just once, although it doesn't look like that will ever happen). I'm especially interested in Kyoraku's bankai as his friend told him that he shouldn't release it where other people can see it (which might mean it's really creepy lol).

Jasta85 wrote:what I meant is that aside from him regaining his powers, there was pretty much no other consequences or changes after the fullbring arc. The new characters, the fullbring power itself are all introduced in that arc and then they all just vanish at the end of the arc. Which is why to me it felt like a filler because that's what a filler arc basically does, fill up time while having no direct effects on the main story (aside from ichigo getting his powers back).

I guess we can just agree that the whole thing was badly done, though maybe for different reasons? Everything about it was unecessary.

Ultimate troll bankai, but so awesome at the same time.

It's not Bleach unless somebody is trolling everyone around them and by extension the reader.

(or in zaraki's case I just want to see him fricken release his sword just once, although it doesn't look like that will ever happen). I'm especially interested in Kyoraku's bankai as his friend told him that he shouldn't release it where other people can see it (which might mean it's really creepy lol).

Whatever Kenpachi's release is, it'll be a horrible disappointment after all this time. Maybe Kyoraku's bankai draws its 'players' into its own reality instead of applying its rules to reality, or maybe it's like Soi Fon's and does something completely different.

Funny how we're using 'release' for this. I'd like to read more about Bleach's cosmology, but maybe that's best left to the readers. For example, if the natural state of souls after death is to become Hollows unless purified by a zanpakuto, wouldn't the first Shinigami have been Arrancar?

Melanchthon wrote:Funny how we're using 'release' for this. I'd like to read more about Bleach's cosmology, but maybe that's best left to the readers. For example, if the natural state of souls after death is to become Hollows unless purified by a zanpakuto, wouldn't the first Shinigami have been Arrancar?

Not necessarily; after Ichigo lost his temporary powers, the point of throwing him down in that hole was for him to drag the latent Shinigami powers he already had out before he turned into a Hollow (it obviously happened late enough that the two sides awakened at once, though; it might be possible for normal Shinigami to be created if it happens early on). It's not too much of a stretch to think that a similar scenario could have taken place at the beginning of all of this, and that the early Shinigami were more akin to the Vizard, barring the idea that awakening the Shinigami powers early in the process prevents the acquiring of Hollow powers. Later generations would likely move away from this method and toward soul purification because the process is just too risky, especially with the threat of any Hollow side the individual gained taking control like it did with Ichigo before the requisite training to harness it properly.

Alternately, it could simply be that the Shinigami were originally implemented as an adjunct of the royal guard residing in Soul Society. It would be true that a soul left to its own devices would almost certainly become a Hollow, but the balance would be thrown out of whack (also mentioned really early on in the series) and the royals - or the royal guard - wouldn't allow that to happen because it would also threaten them. But then you get into the problem of 'where do the royals come from, then?' which is probably unanswerable unless it's some tremendous ass-pull.

It does raise the question of whether being cut by the zanpakuto of an Arrancar (or a Vizard with their mask out) still purifies the soul or not, though.

I don't think they're dead. They would have definitely had longer scenes if they had. Whenever any major character dies in this series they get some kind of emotional death scene to go along with it (WHY did Gin, the coolest character in the series, have to die, seriously.) Even Renji got a major scene when he "almost died" when fighting Byakuya.

If they killed off 2 of the main characters in such a anticlimactic way (hell, Kenpachi didn't even get a fight scene, THAT is lame) then there would be riots among the bleach fans.

There isn't a manga discussion forum here so while it's off-topic to talk about the manga, there's no topic to be on any more.

Spoiler :

I've read that Grimmjow might be / is coming back. I don't know what the hell he's going to in a fight that's seeing Yamamoto using his Bankai. Maybe he'll do what Vegeta did in the Cell Games and distract a much stronger opponent for the fraction of a second needed for someone else to get a shot in. That would be a random return. How long has it been now?

Qyot27 wrote:It's not too much of a stretch to think that a similar scenario could have taken place at the beginning of all of this, and that the early Shinigami were more akin to the Vizard, barring the idea that awakening the Shinigami powers early in the process prevents the acquiring of Hollow powers. Later generations would likely move away from this method and toward soul purification [....]

That could work. There really doesn't seem to be much of a difference between the living and the dead except for dead people being invisible to living people without spiritual awareness... and Ichigo was out of his living body anyway before being thrown in the pit.

It does raise the question of whether being cut by the zanpakuto of an Arrancar (or a Vizard with their mask out) still purifies the soul or not, though.

That would be a pretty neat thing for Tito to pull. It's not something that's been explicitly set up, but it makes sense within the Bleach universe.

here we Ichigo rushes in to save the day but everything is in ruins now, interested to see how much he will need to power up now lol As long as the story ends with some sort of epic Ichigo vs Ishida shinigami vs quincy fight I'm happy.